EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Experience vs. obsolescence: A vintage-human-capital model

Matthias Kredler

Journal of Economic Theory, 2014, vol. 150, issue C, 709-739

Abstract: I introduce endogenous human-capital accumulation into an infinite-horizon version of Chari and Hopenhaynʼs (1991) [4] vintage-human-capital model. Returns to skill and tenure premia are highest in young vintages, where skill is scarcest and agents accumulate human capital fastest. As the vintage ages, the skill premium decreases and vanishes entirely upon vintage death. Workers run through cycles of human-capital accumulation: their wages rise as they accumulate skill, undergo downward pressure as the technology ages, and finally drop sharply when the worker switches to a new technology. The results are in line with German linked employer–employee data: tenure premia are highest in young establishments, as well as in fast-growing industries, occupations and establishments. A calibration exercise suggests that human-capital accumulation is the most important determinant of workersʼ wage profiles, whereas changes to the price of skill and vintage productivity gains play a smaller quantitative role.

Keywords: Vintage human capital; Tenure-wage profiles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022053113001440
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Experience vs. Obsolescence: A Vintage-Human-Capital Model (2010) Downloads
Working Paper: Experience vs. Obsolescence: A Vintage-Human-Capital Model (2008) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:150:y:2014:i:c:p:709-739

DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2013.08.003

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Theory is currently edited by A. Lizzeri and K. Shell

More articles in Journal of Economic Theory from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:150:y:2014:i:c:p:709-739